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If you always feel like 24 hours aren’t enough for a day, you aren’t alone. While you can’t exactly have a longer day, there are ways you can use your time better. Read on to find the best 4 tips for squeezing the most out of your day:

1. Set goals, write them down

A short-term or a long-term goal can give you purpose. So, you will be more motivated to contribute to the accomplishment of your goals every day. Clear goals will help you design your day better and you will be highly productive if you know that you have a deadline.

Make sure that you set achievable, realistic goals though.

2. Have a routine

Wonder why your body needs 6-8 hours of a sleep every day? It’s the routine. This is how your body works. Set a routine for you but you don’t have to super-strict so leave yourself enough room for spontaneity. But have a routine to ensure that you don’t waste time doing irrelevant things.

Set a specific routine to go through your emails, connect with clients, devote time to your employees or your team, walk your dog. Most of all, don’t forget to prioritize your personal connections like your family. Always have a specific meal of the day with them and keep the communication open. Menstrong.com provides an easy to follow routine for all your fitness and nutrition needs.

3. Accept responsibility

Hold yourself accountable instead of finding factors and issues to blame. Understand that you are in control of your time and that you can’t procrastinate. Keep your motivation up by prioritizing deadlines and your reliability. Peers and clients will rely on your more once you earn the accountable and reliable reputation.

4. Get rid of the bad habits

Believe it or not, binge-watching, scrolling a bottomless feed on facebook, or engaging or arguing with a troll on social media is an utter waste of time.

If you are oversleeping, it’s a bad habit of keeping you from using your time better. So, make a list of all the bad habits you think you have and prioritize getting rid of them.

Going out with your friends or on dates all the time on weekends is not as important as meeting deadlines and retaining clients. Take your time to relax but focus on mindful ways of relaxing to ensure that your motivation levels stay up.

Summing up

Making all these changes in one go will be hard to adopt these tips one by one and make small changes. Ensure that you prioritize your daily routine and stick to it since it’s a short-term goal. Also, don’t be too hard on yourself while setting long-term goals. Identify what’s keeping you from achieving your goals and use a proactive approach to reach them.

What’s up world!? hope everyone’s training is going well. We decided to record this quick video to give you guys some key principles on how to build muscles based on science. So let’s recap! Nutrition is everything! Consuming the right amount of carbs and protein is key and of course, menstrong.com has you covered so check us out at menstrong.com for details. Principle 2 is time under tension. This principle is all about how much time is used during the lifting and return phase. The tempo is key to building muscle and you always need to ensure you’re not simply blasting through reps but instead you’re staying in the work phase of the exercise to help maximize muscle growth. Principle 3 is volume training and this consists of the overall amount of sets and reps to really tear the muscles so it can grow when you rest. These principles are integrated into both the GET BIF AND GET RIPPED PROGRAMS in menstrong.com so head over there now and join BigMike and TJ! Let’s work!

Despite all the technology we’ve seen in recent years, there’s one thing we continue trying to understand; the human mind. Over the course of decades, we put our all into learning everything there is to know about ourselves and other people only to feel surprised when something unexpected happens.

For example, the stresses of life can sometimes get the better of us, and this leads to the death of creativity, productivity, and opportunities to meet up with loved ones and friends. If you can relate to any of this, you aren’t alone because millions feel demotivated or depressed every single day. With so many pressures in the world, there are numerous reasons one may feel depressed including financial worries, illness, work, failed relationships, or even extreme jealousy of others.

Areas of Depression and Demotivation

Unfortunately, dealing with the issue isn’t quite as easy as it sounds because demotivation and depression feed off each other and it eventually becomes a spiral of negativity. However, we have some of the very best tips below.

Professional Goals – According to a recent report, fewer than 25% of people in the world feel as though they’ve achieved professional goals. Considering our career takes up a huge part of our lives, we instantly feel like a failure when we aren’t successful in our jobs. Over time, we lose passion and energy for work, and we get stuck in an endless loop.

As simple as it sounds, you’re in charge of your life so change your job as soon as possible. Even if you start on a smaller wage, you need to be happy in life, so it makes sense to lose the job keeping you unhappy.

Societal Pressures – Every day, we try to live up to the expectations of society even though the bar seems obsessively high. If you keep dressing in a certain way, aim to earn a certain salary, or even just act in a certain way, you aren’t true to yourself. Instead, you need to be happy with who you are because the key factor that will earn the respect of others is actually self-respect.

Family Life – As well as putting you under pressure, your family are likely to compare you to ‘successful cousins’ or siblings, and this can be tough to take. Once again, you need to continue on your own path but just explain your goals to your family. If they can’t respect this, you simply rise above it and keep that self-respect.

Tips for Fighting Depression and Demotivation

Exercise – Although it’s been said millions of times, exercise really is a fantastic way to boost your physical and mental energy. By releasing endorphins, a positive feeling will spend throughout your body and mind. Often, when we say the word ‘exercise,’ people think of long hours on the treadmill, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Why don’t you find something you enjoy? For example, you could play badminton with friends or boxing to improve your stamina.

Read – As long as you choose a good book you can really sink your teeth into, reading is a great way to forget about life for a while and enter a fictional world.

Communication – Finally, talk about your feelings to other people. Although you’re probably shaking your head on this one already, you need to connect to those around you and talking about your feelings is the only way to do this. Once people see what’s happening from your perspective, they’ll be more understanding and supportive moving forward.

Remember, nobody in the world will ever have to spend as much time with you…than you. No matter what happens, you’re in charge, and you should always feel comfortable in your own skin!

Do You Feel Like a Winner? Here’s Why Most Don’t

Although it might not feel like it right now, you are the only one with enough control in your life to make a difference. If you aren’t winning right now, it normally comes from a lack of belief or control, but this is something we’re going to fix today. Below, we’ve listed eight key reasons why you aren’t winning and how to fix them!

Focusing on the Negatives – If you hold a dinner party and eight people had a great time while one didn’t enjoy themselves, which do you focus on? For most of us, we would dwell on the one person who didn’t have a good time, and this is because we tend to be perfectionists. Since this mindset can be quite damaging, we want you to start looking at the positives instead by pulling them into perspective. Sure, you might be able to learn from the negatives, but the positives should always be your motivation.

Wrong ‘Friends’ – For some reason, we get into the habit of spending time with people we don’t trust or even like. If you continue to spend time with people who bring you down, you’ll never be able to stand strong so cut them from your life. Sure, they might realize the error of their ways in the time to come but, for now, you should be surrounding yourself with people who support your journey.

Playing Poorly – If you have no goals and no purpose in life, you aren’t even playing to win. Whenever you have no plan or goals, you simply ride the waves that come your way without achieving any dreams that might be lying underneath. Why don’t you find your passion, set some goals, and really make a push for your dreams?

Lying to Yourself – If you cannot be honest with yourself, becoming a winner will be the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Instead of making excuses and blaming the circumstances, turn things in your favor and be honest with yourself. If you can account for it, you can control it.

Instant Rewards – Whenever you feel gratification for your intentions, you no longer require the gratification for completing the task, and this is a huge issue. Suddenly, you don’t put in the work because you feel as though you’ve had all that will come of it. If you want real results, you don’t need to tell the world where you go; just show them when you’re there.

Lacking the Follow Through – When you make decisions regarding your personal life or career, this is great, but you then need to see them through. If farmers decided to plant crops this year but didn’t actually work on them after planting, they would have nothing to show at the end. Although it might be hard work, you need to give your all to make your plans happen.

Subconscious – No matter how many positive thoughts you have, your subconscious slowly breaks these down with its own negative opinions. For example, you might have a dream to own a specific car. Suddenly, your subconscious says ‘I’ll never have the money.’. If your subconscious limits your dreams, you’ll never be the winner you desire.

Looking for Issues – Finally, another problem we see far too often is people looking for problems. Sadly, their mindset is so negative they wake up and look for the problems to come whether it’s the boss, broken car, or something simple like gone-off milk. Instead, you should be thinking the other way around; life is positive, and the negatives are short-lived experiences to help you grow!

We think we know ourselves but do we really? It’s time to evaluate your true-self today!

If we were to ask you questions regarding your friends, you could probably answer them in an instant. However, we aren’t so good with questions about ourselves. Do you know yourself as a person? Sadly, millions of people can’t answer this question because they have been focusing on the ‘what’ rather than the ‘who’. As a prime example of this, we were asked as children ‘what’ we wanted to be when we grew up rather than ‘who’.

If you do one thing this year, find your true self because it can be a rewarding and self-fulfilling process. Today, we have seven things you should be discovering in the time ahead. Once you complete these, you can become the person you want to be.

Values – First and foremost, your personal values are perhaps most important because they explain your opinions and even your actions. What are your beliefs and do you know exactly why these factors are important for you? Over time, you should also learn just how committed you are to these beliefs and they begin to form your opinions and help to make important decisions.

Passions – If we were to ask you to list ten things you enjoy doing, we could almost guarantee that most of the activities would be with friends. Although this is great, we want you to spend some time alone and find out what you really enjoy. What activities capture your whole attention and imagination? Of course, we are all unique so this is likely to be different to everyone else you know.

Strengths – Along with your passions, you can also find your strengths and where your natural abilities lay. In all likelihood, you have different strengths to everyone else around you so there is no point acting like somebody else. Instead, you can find your own strengths and be your own person.

Limitations – On the flip side, we all have limitations and things that, no matter how hard we try, we just cannot get right. For some reason, we beat ourselves up for this but even the people you admire most have things at which they cannot excel; there is nobody in the world that can do everything well. As long as you know this, you can focus your energy on your strengths instead.

Tendencies – In truth, we all have tendencies whether it is to jump into ideas head first or procrastinate for a period of days and weeks. If you recognize your tendencies, you can better analyze your personality whilst pinpointing areas that could be improved. Eventually, you will know how these tendencies contribute or harm your strengths and limitations.

Goals – As mentioned at the beginning, who do you want to be when you grow older? Even if you think you’re ‘old’ now, who do you want to be in five, ten, or twenty years’ time? Remember, all goals need to be SMART; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related.

Direction – Finally, where is your direction in life and where is your true self-going to direct you in the coming years? As soon as you understand the first six factors, the direction will take care of itself. Often, we spend too long focusing on the destination when the journey itself is the most important factor. Once you choose a direction that represents YOUR happiness, you can be confident that you will enjoy the life that unfolds before you!

Often, we talk about how to be successful but what happens when this success is slow in the making?

When this happens, we look for ways to speed it up because we just want to see results immediately. In truth, this is because we tend to focus all our attentions on the end result rather than the process of getting there. Suddenly, we want overnight success, but these are unrealistic expectations.

Journaling and Meditation – When we strive towards success, there will be small achievements as well as little disappointments along the way. Over time, this requires integrity, stamina, and courage if you are to keep going. Sadly, we seem to focus on what isn’t working rather than what is, and this leads to constant disappointment and demotivation.

Instead, you should be looking to change your mindset to focus on what is working. To do this, we have two simple tips – meditation and journaling. With the latter, you can start each day by noting something or someone you’re grateful for and this will help to focus and realize how lucky you are. If you have many things for which you are grateful, it shows that you are definitely doing something right.

As mentioned, we also like mediation. At times, it gets a poor reputation, but this is only because people don’t take the time to learn what it’s all about. Essentially, the aim of meditation is to remove all judgments and thoughts because this allows the unconscious mind to take over. In this state, you can focus on your goals, enable your creative side, and ensure that you’re on the right path.

Take Action – If success is a little slow so far, you need to question the action you have been taking. In many cases, people believe that they are acting when, in truth, there is a lot more they could be doing. If you have been holding back, ask yourself why this is the case. If you decide that this is definitely the path you desire, take some risks, get out of your comfort zone, and propel yourself forward to reach your goals. Every day, write a list of tasks that will move you forward. If you don’t do them, you need accountability so tell your friends and phone them at the end of the day. As soon as you get used to doing this every day, you will be making progress.

Be Patient – Sometimes, success takes hard work; it takes determination; it requires risks and tremendous leaps of faith. Other times, it just requires a little patience. As long as you are doing all you can and you aren’t ending days or weeks with regret, you know that it will come in good time. If you originally wanted overnight success, this patience will be tough, but it will be worth it in the end.

Conclusion – Success is an interesting thing; above all else, it is subjective. What does success mean? For you, it may mean reaching the top of your industry and being a well-known figure. For others, it means having the financial security to support their family. As soon as you find your definition of success, you need to work hard, focus on what is working, and practice patience. Once you master this, success is just a matter of time.

We reach that time of year again where self-assessment and reflection are at an all-time high. As we head into 2017, we start to assess our goals and decide whether we are truly happy in life or whether changes need to be made. If you choose to progress in your current industry or push towards a new career, we have three simple ways of setting yourself up for success.

Set a Plan – Of course, this time of year is synonymous with setting so-called ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ but how successful are these aims? According to a recent study, less than 10% of people feel as though they were successful with their resolution come December. To go further, only 58% of resolutions remain in place after just one month. Why is this the case?

In most cases, the failure comes because there is a real lack of planning. When deciding on your goals for 2017, you need to work out exactly how you plan to get there otherwise there is no point in the first place. Would you plan a holiday without planning how to get there? When planning, remember daily, weekly, and monthly actions you can take to progress towards your goals. However, never let planning get in the way of starting the journey.

Simplicity is Key – Rather than setting many different goals and getting confused so that, by the end of the year, no progress is made, try to set just one goal for each area of your life. In life, it is always good to have many different ambitions but you will see much better results as soon as you slow down and focus on one goal at a time.

For many, quitting smoking is one of the main goals of the year and one simple way to move towards that aim is to calculate what money is currently being spent on the habit and where that money could go if you were to quit. For example, if you have children, it could be put towards a holiday or new toys and clothes. In all areas of your goal-setting, simplicity is key and this should come together with your planning seen in the first tip. Rather than creating difficult and confusing plans, keep things simple and take one small step at a time.

Don’t Forget Balance – Having a plan and setting goals is all well and good but this doesn’t mean that we should completely forget other areas of life. In truth, balance should be one of the most important targets that you have this year because we need it for that one word we have used throughout – success.

For example, a lack of balance can be seen in many areas of life but commonly in the gym. Have you ever seen a bulky guy in the gym that creates a sense of intimidation just by walking around with huge arms, chest, and shoulders? To see whether they have correct balance, take a glance down at their legs. Sadly, many work too hard on the upper body and leave the legs behind which makes them look like a cartoon character with stick legs. Essentially, this is a brilliant metaphor for life so you need to remember all areas of life and don’t let one fall behind. If your career is going well, don’t forget to take some time to maintain your personal relationships. Every so often, take a step back and reassess to ensure that you remain on the right path.

Summary – With these three simple tips, you can set yourself up for success in 2017. Rather than setting a ‘resolution’ this month, why not set some goals and a plan to make sure that you really do succeed in 2017?

Look out for these 6 types of people to avoid becoming one of them..

In life, we are told to be happy because this can influence other people too. Does this mean it reflects in the opposite way? Yes, people around you will feel negative if you project it onto them. However, rather than looking at how you can affect people, we are going to look at how other people can influence you. For this reason, we have six types of people you should avoid if you want to keep the right mindset in life.

Note: The names used do not reflect real people, focus on removing the types of people not everyone you know with the names we will use!

Negative Nigel – Sooner or later, you will come across people who will only talk about the negative things in their life, and you need to keep your distance from them entirely. If you spend too much time around them, their negative mood will affect you and distract you from your goals.

Gossip Gloria – Some people just love to gossip, and although it is natural to a point, you should never spend your time with people who gossip all day long. Rather than focusing on other lives, focus on your own and you will make more progress.

Party Peter – now and then, we all need to spend some time away from work and let our hair down. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to go out every night. Not only will this drain your body and mind of all energy, but your wallet will also see the consequences. As soon as you can walk away from this type of person, you can start to introduce healthy habits like getting up early in the morning.

Judge Julia – At no point in your life should you feel as though someone is beneath you; for this reason, you need to be around people who don’t judge. Every person on this planet is unique, and so the only acts you should be questioning are your own; after all, these are the only ones you can control and change.

Complaining Carl – Just like the negative person we discussed previously, the complainer likes to whine about every little thing. From the weather to the price of a loaf of bread, they make it their life’s ambition to complain every day. If you fall into this habit, you will struggle to see the bright side of situations and your positive mindset will be gone.

Bully Brenda – Finally, you should also stay away from those who like to bully. Regardless of whether they are bullying you or someone else, you want to be around people that are genuinely pleasant and are happy not to change other people. Over time, they will change, and they will see that it is themselves with the problem, but you don’t have to be a part of this.

These are six types of people you should try and keep your distance from; if you can do this, you will be keeping all unnecessary negativity away from your life which will then allow you to stay positive and focus on growth and progress.

Losing a Bad Habit is hard as fu*k but try breaking your habit down with these realistic timelines..

Having a bad habit is hard because you try to break it only to find that it’s too hard, and then you feel bad; it creates a spiral of negativity between feeling bad and falling deeper. However, the reason why you haven’t quit before could be because you give up too early. According to recent studies, it takes around 65 days to lose a bad habit completely and develop a new one.

What Are Habits? – Habits are acts that are stuck in the ‘habit loop’ and have been for some time – trigger – routine – reward. When you get bored or tired, you might get into the habit of eating. Suddenly, something will trigger this desire, and then we fulfill it. The problem with this process is the ‘reward’ phase because the habit is something that we like; in no way does this mean it is good for us, it just means we feel rewarded by the habit.

Over time, a habit that is in the loop will grow stronger and stronger until it seems almost impossible to break. However, this new 65-day plan may just help you better than any plan you have tried before.

First 10 Days – Once you have identified a habit you want to lose, you have to look inwards and find the triggers that create the ‘need’ for this habit. For example, do you eat because you’re bored, sad, depressed, lonely? Whatever your habit may be, spend some time looking inwards and find what your triggers are.

Days 11-40 – For the next few weeks, you need to tell everybody you know that you are in the process of breaking your habit. If you don’t tell anyone, the consequences of a mistake are minimal. If you tell all your family, friends, colleagues, and even your mail carrier, you will be called out when you slip up. Make sure they are ready to put you in your place should you start to slip; keep reminding them that this is important to you.

Days 41-65 – The toughest part of this section is that you are quite likely to collapse, but you have to ensure that you keep your head in the game and remember the triggers. Knowing how to notice triggers and deal with them quickly and efficiently is the only way you are going to turn this into a long-term success.

Ultimately, this process is purely psychological, and you need to reward yourself when you do well. Although the end goal will be to lose the habit and this brings its own rewards, be ready to treat yourself, and you will be less likely to fail in the future. Also, it may take you a few days extra if you had a couple of relapses in the middle but as long as you stay focused and remember the tips above, you should be good to go!

Bad Habits. We all have some…

However, they can also be the downfall of our existence, get rid of these following habits and you are more thank likely to be happier.

Sometimes life can be hard. There is no denying this fact. However, you can make your life easier just by removing some poor habits. You may look at your life now and think that you can’t do anymore but have a little look down this list and see if they affect you.

Complaining – No matter how much you complain, nothing will ever happen. When you complain, all you are doing is spreading negative energy and putting yourself (as well as everyone else around you) in a bad mood. If you want to make a change, go ahead and act.

Time-Wasting – You go home after a long day’s work, eat dinner, and then crash in front of the TV until it is time to go to bed; just think about all the things you could be doing in this time. You could be studying towards a new career, exercising to stay fit, learning a new skill, or absolutely anything. A good way to see where you are losing time is to keep a diary and then review it at the end of each week; you will be surprised at how much time you waste.

Negative Thinking – One day, write down all the negative thoughts you receive; you will be shocked at the result because you have probably just got used to it. When you realize just how negatively you have been thinking, you can do something about it to become more positive.

Not Planning – Let’s ask a question – how do you know where you are going if you have no plan? It becomes so easy to waste time when you don’t have a plan because you don’t know if it is progressing you or not. If you work out a plan to achieve your goals, decisions will be made for you and you will know the next steps to take to progress.

Too Much Phone Time – Technology has advanced dramatically in recent years, but you still need to look up now and then; sometimes we spend all day at work and then all night looking at our phones. Why not turn your phone off now and then to spend quality time with those around you?

Lack of Sleep – Sleep is vital because it refreshes both your body and your mind allowing you to concentrate the next day. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you are giving yourself no chance to do anything worthwhile the next day; the more you do it, the more it becomes a habit and the longer you will struggle.

Staying Comfortable – How are you ever going to progress if you don’t leave your comfort zone? The comfort zone is great (hence the name), but if you don’t push yourself every now and then, you will never progress and become the person you want to be.

These are seven simple bad habits and ones that can be easily changed. It is all too easy to say that we are ‘fed up’ with life or that we want to ‘grow’ but we are holding ourselves back with these poor habits. If you want to progress, change your habits. We’re on this journey together!